Ailsa Bay, located in the Lowlands on the Clyde coast with views of Ailsa Craig, Kintyre, and Arran, is a versatile distillery known for producing a range of whisky styles. Built in 2007 by William Grant & Sons on the Girvan site where Ladyburn once operated, Ailsa Bay was designed to support Grant’s blends and flagship malts like Glenfiddich and Balvenie. Its eight stills, modeled after Balvenie’s, allow for the production of four distinct styles: estery, nutty, fruity, and heavily peated.
The distillery has an annual capacity of 5 million liters and was established to ease demand pressures on Balvenie while enhancing flavor flexibility for Grant’s products. Ailsa Bay marks the continuation of a long tradition of malt distilleries within grain plants, like Inverleven, Ben Wyvis, and Ladyburn, though it has found enduring success compared to its predecessors.
In 2016, Ailsa Bay released its first official single malt, a no-age-statement heavily peated expression. This release showcased the distillery’s innovative approach, including precise control over spirit cut points, experimental vatting and maturation techniques, and even a proprietary “sweetness measurement.” The result is a whisky that embodies the distillery’s commitment to both tradition and cutting-edge production methods.
